So how ’bout this hotel, The Marque? Well, it wasn’t until my third or fourth night in my room that I noticed the earthquake damage in the room, up along the wall in the corner and above the artwork near the desk.
Had that been there before? I don’t know … perhaps not. Because, almost every night we were in New Zealand there were aftershocks … some in the four-point range. But I was only interested in rating Wi-Fi hotspots — not keeping score on tremors. “We don’t need no stinking Richter scale … ” I slept right through every one of them … never felt a jostle, even though my buddies said they had their clothes all ready to escape to the streets if needed. I will take their word for it.
Despite the fresh gapes in the plaster, the room was pretty nice, and YES, there was one outlet with good old Yankee 110 current in the bathroom for my chargers and shaver. (Of course most modern laptops will handle a 220 plug with the adaptor …)
I plugged the DSL cable into my laptop, a bit of nostalgia … since I haven’t had to do this in years … but it is what it is .. And I updated Facebook and tweeted the old fashioned way. My next priority was to ask management to remove all of the food and drinks from the room refrigerator, before I ate something and blew my travel budget on the pricey items.
Then I hit the The Marque lobby and did some great international people watching. The lobby is surrounded with glass, and the street outside is in the heart of City Center, so there were lots of interesting passersby.
After several Wi-Fi tests in the lobby, I got to know the staff … and of course I pushed off some PingWi-Fi t-shirts in return for their travel tips. One of the best tips was regarding live music. They told me of several clubs … and yes, they alerted me to the fact that American heavy metal legend Metallica was about to play in Christchurch. Hmmm … interesting.
Metallica … we shall see. Meanwhile I still had this old Counting Crows song stuck in my head — something about “Down in New Zealand.” I needed to look up the song, but kept forgetting … I digress …
Back to Wi-Fi. Best of all, the lobby of The Marque does have Wi-Fi throughout. With all due respect though, if The Marque was setting the mark for New Zealand Wi-Fi … the bar was average. Connecting was easy enough, merely requiring a passcode from the front desk. I surfed several times with my HP laptop and my Apple iPad. But, the going was slow … streaming videos was barely an option.
This is a Wi-Fi score. The hotel service in general would get a much higher mark — great people, nice facility, valet parking … But we’re talking Wi-Fi, slow Wi-Fi at that. I was going to say 3 pings for the score, but Wi-Fi provider/roaming option Boingo was a choice on The Marques’ Wi-Fi splash page, and that made for an easier activation each time I got on — easier than the hotel’s everchanging passcode hookup. The Marque, with the international help of Boingo — 4 pings.
Just out of curiosity … wondered how many Boingo hotspots there were in Christchurch, beyond my hotel lobby:
Know what I sayin?
(More New Zealand blogs to come …)
